Chapter 1
Lynette D’Clara Hilt, dagger in hand, didn’t hesitate for a second.
A glint of steel flashed in the dark and silently flew toward the sleeping man.
Shhk.
The blade sliced through the air, cleanly cutting off strands of black hair.
Lynette tightly grasped the severed hair and stepped out of the bedchamber.
Obtaining the crown prince’s hair while he slept defenseless had been as easy as pie.
Getting out was just as simple. All those months of preparation had paid off.
*‘Let’s hurry.’*
The snow that had started in the early evening had turned into a blizzard.
Wearing only a robe over her chemise, the biting wind felt like it was tearing her skin.
But she felt thankful. The heavy snow was carefully erasing all traces of her passage.
“Liri, did you succeed?”
Argos, who’d been nervously biting his nails like a child, froze the moment the door opened.
Lynette pulled the hair from her robe and quietly handed it to him.
The anxiety and desperation on Argos’s face vanished instantly.
“It’s done. Now, everything’s in place.”
Clutching the prince’s hair, he let out a low, eerie laugh.
“My long-awaited revenge will finally be complete.”
Lynette laughed with him, forgetting even the windburn stinging her cheeks.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to ask this of you.”
Argos gently brushed aside the hair that half-covered her face.
Lynette turned her head to avoid his touch.
She had no right eye—or rather, the entire right side of her face was melted and fused together.
A burn scar from the fire on the day of her mother’s funeral, when she was twelve.
Argos Pad Ferro was the only man who had embraced her pain and her disfigured face.
“Don’t say that. I did it because I wanted to.”
“I love you, Liri. I’ll make you the most beautiful and happiest woman in the world.”
Argos pulled her into a fierce embrace.
Lynette instinctively leaned her hips back as she accepted him.
A new life was growing inside her.
Soon, her belly would be too round to hide under a dress.
“Liri, I carry bad and filthy blood. Only you keep me alive.”
“That’s not true, Ari.”
Lynette broke free from his arms and protested.
She knew it was the same lament he always made, but she couldn’t stay silent any longer.
If his blood was filthy, that meant the child in her womb was too.
“I want to get married before my belly shows.”
“As soon as my brother dies, we’ll hold the ceremony. The curse won’t take long.”
Lynette bit her lip and gave a heavy nod.
* * *
Ten days later, Argos’s brother, Crown Prince Finberk Pad Ferro of the Kingdom of Cantournes, died of a mysterious illness.
But unlike Argos’s wishes, the succession didn’t happen immediately.
The problem was that Argos was the son of a concubine—one who had been accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake.
Those who had branded Argos’s mother a witch now lived in fear.
But the unfortunate man had Lynette.
“Ari, don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”
More precisely, Lynette had a wealthy grandfather behind her.
Even so, it took quite some time before she married Argos, the new crown prince.
“Liri, you look so beautiful.”
Her sister Kanna had taken charge of all the wedding preparations.
Kanna had cared for Lynette so thoroughly that their mother’s absence was hardly felt.
“I get so angry hearing all the gossip from people who don’t even know the situation.”
Kanna muttered as she dabbed the tears at the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief.
She must have known the rumors—that Lynette was already heavily pregnant and had used their father’s inheritance and dowry in advance to support Argos.
“It’s okay. I don’t care about what they say.”
“Oh, my sweet, beautiful little sister.”
Kanna held Lynette’s hand.
“Live happily, okay?”
“Thank you.”
Thinking of Kanna always made Lynette feel a bit sorry.
Kanna had married a marquis and left home several years ago.
But not long after, the marquis died.
Widowed, she returned to the estate, and while Lynette was glad to have her sister back, she always felt a sense of unease.
The marquis had originally been intended to marry Lynette.
She always felt like Kanna had taken on her misfortune in her place, and for that, she was deeply sorry.
“I hope you meet someone good soon.”
“It’s alright. This is just my fate.”
Though she was past the usual age and had already experienced a failed marriage, Kanna was still as beautiful as a newly blooming flower.
With ivory-colored hair and mysterious green eyes, Kanna radiated an ethereal charm. She looked nothing like Lynette.
Of course, that was only natural—they weren’t related by blood.
“Sweet Liri, you’re the only one who still thinks of me.”
Kanna knelt on one knee and gently brushed back Lynette’s hair.
The action exposed her burn-scarred right eye.
“Liri, has His Highness ever really seen your face?”
It was a strange question, but Lynette simply nodded.
“I see.”
“He’s a sincere man. He always looks me in the eye and treats me kindly.”
“Who do you hope the child takes after?”
Lynette pressed her lips together and held her breath.
‘I hope the baby has hair like Argos—shining like gold. I want them to be brave and dignified like him, always seeing the world with honest eyes.’
She couldn’t bring herself to say the words aloud, so she silently repeated them in her heart.
That was when a loud, heavy sound of footsteps began echoing in the distance.
She had no time to wonder what was happening.
Bang!
The closed door burst open, and soldiers stormed into the room.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Lynette turned to look at the soldiers.
She thought it was a terrible mistake, an outrage.
She resolved to tell Argos and make sure these rude men were all punished.
“Seize the witch!”
‘Witch?’
Lynette stood and stumbled back several steps.
The soldiers’ spears were pointed directly at her.
“Do you have any idea who I am, how dare—”
But when she turned her head, Kanna had already slipped to the doorway, holding her fingers to her lips.
Before she realized it, the soldiers had surrounded her and grabbed her arms.
“Kanna! Call Ari right now!”
She struggled violently, screaming—
—and then, through the open doorway, a familiar voice entered the room.
Argos walked in.
“There’s no need. I’m already here.”
“Ari!”
The sobs she’d been holding back burst forth.
At the sight of him, her body gave out and she collapsed to the floor.
Crown Prince Argos looked down at her with a cold, regal gaze.
“I always knew you lacked modesty, but I didn’t think you’d go so far as to spread your legs.”
“What?”
“You thought I wouldn’t know you snuck into my brother’s bedchamber?”
Lynette’s eyes widened in disbelief.
It was Argos himself who had told her to go into Finberk’s chamber and cut his hair.
“Disgusting, filthy wench.”
She had drugged Finberk and taken only his hair—because she couldn’t bear to lie with him while carrying Argos’s child.
“Ari, what are you talking about?”
“You not only dishonored my brother but murdered him, then conceived his child with dark magic.”
Lynette bit her lips and looked up at him in anguish.
“Ari, this child is—”
“You’re a witch.”
Lynette collapsed onto the floor, screaming.
‘I’ve been deceived.’
Every “I love you,” every “only you”—it was all a lie.
It didn’t take long to realize she’d been betrayed.
Clutching her pregnant belly, Lynette wailed.
“Ari, please, let me give birth to this child. The child is innocent!”
“Tsk tsk, Lynette.”
Argos slowly stepped toward her.
The soldiers surrounding them gripped their spears tighter, visibly tense.
“Do you know how painful it is to live as the child of a witch?”
He whispered into her ear.
“Just die. It’ll be better for both you and your spawn.”
Then he stood tall again, leaving Lynette shattered.
“Take the witch away. The execution will be held tomorrow morning.”
* * *
The sentence was swift.
There was no trial, no defense—only immediate judgment.
She was thrown into a damp underground prison in her wedding dress.
Exhausted from crying, even breathing had become difficult. But she still felt the kicks of her unborn child.
She tore at her hair, wept, collapsed, and repeated it all over again.
That was when—
“Liri.”
Kanna appeared before Lynette, who no longer had the strength to even answer.
